HIV/AIDS awareness campaign launched

MANILA, Philippines - An HIV/AIDS awareness campaign was launched yesterday in partnership with a telecommunications firm to help curb the malady’s soaring cases.

The Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC) and Globe Telecommunication launched “TXT HIV” to 8504 to make HIV/AIDS services accessible through mobile phones.

The mobile communications campaign is designed to provide information and referrals to HIV counseling, testing and life-staying treatment programs.

It will be available at no extra cost to Globe mobile subscribers for one year.

Ferchito Avelino, PNAC executive director, said many Filipinos now regard mobile phones as an “indispensable device” for information and services, so they hope to raise public awareness about HIV/AIDS through the campaign.

“A subscriber can initiate the service by texting ‘HIV’ and sending to 8504,” he said.

“A series of messages and interactive voice responses guides users through information, (and) risk assessment.”

Avelino said the campaign is in line with the United Nation’s advocacy for information and communication technology-based initiatives to combat HIV.

It has infected 17,450 Filipinos since 1984, he added.

Of this number, 1,599 have progressed into AIDS, while 950 had died, Avelino said.

Texters can also be referred to participating health facilities in Metro Manila if they need HIV/AIDS services.

Avelino said initially available for referrals are the social hygiene clinics of Manila, Pasay City, Quezon City and the Woodwater center in Pasig.

“These facilities offer confidential HIV counseling and testing, and are linked to services of treatment hubs, or hospitals that enroll HIV-positive patients to antiretroviral therapy that arrest the destructive progress of HIV in the body,” he said.

The campaign also loops contact details of PNAC, Department of Health (DOH), and PinoyLifeguide.org as supporting information sources.

Republic Act 8504, the Philippine AIDS Prevention and Control Act of 1998, created PNAC to be the “central advisory, planning and policy-making body for comprehensive and integrated HIV/AIDS prevention and control program in the Philippines.”

The DOH has reported 934 HIV cases, including 36 AIDS and eight deaths in January and February 2014 alone.